


Late Night Tales of Tripods and Ice Cream

by altoinkblots



Series: Hugs Heal the Wounds Tears Leave Behind [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Male Character, Bisexual Female Character, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, No Proofreading We Die Like Men, mind the author's note at the beginning please and thank you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23388916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altoinkblots/pseuds/altoinkblots
Summary: Winry wakes Ed up with a phone call at three in the morning, and she really, really needs someone to talk to.
Relationships: Edward Elric & Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric/Winry Rockbell
Series: Hugs Heal the Wounds Tears Leave Behind [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680922
Comments: 13
Kudos: 46





	Late Night Tales of Tripods and Ice Cream

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, this deals pretty heavily with death, especially the deaths of parents. So if you don't want to read that, please click away; I want your experience here to be a good one. Secondly, I made a minor edit to the previous work (re-naming their calc professor Fisher instead of Curtis) because I am not proofreading nor editing these so things will change on occasion. Thirdly, if you haven't guessed by now, this series is slowburn. Winry is a bisexual disaster while Ed is an equal demiromantic/sexual disaster so it's gonna take a while. Enjoy!!

Little black circles bounced around, lighting up into different colors to the cheerful beat. It isn’t until a while passes in his dream that Ed realizes that the noise is outside of his dream, but it isn’t any of his alarms. He cracks his eye open and sees Winry’s face filling his phone screen. He blinks, groggy. Why is she calling him? 

He sits up and answers the phone. “Hello?” he yawns. He’s not sure what he hears on the other end. He almost can’t hear anything, whether it be background noise or something else interfering with the call. “Winry?”

A broken sob escapes on the other line. Ed scrambled out of bed and grabbed his crutches. “Hang on,” he said, “I’m making my way to a quiet room.”

“ _ Okay _ ,” Winry said, her voice weak and warbling. 

Ed limped out of his room and to the bathroom, holding his phone while leaning on his crutches. It was a good thing he kept his room clean, otherwise he would have tripped over something. 

He turned on the light to the bathroom and sat down on the floor, kicking it closed with his only leg. “Okay,” he said, sliding down onto the floor next to the toilet. “What’s up?”

Winry choked back a sob. She tried to speak a few times, but each time she broke down crying again. Ed put her on speakerphone and balanced his phone on his stump, turning the volume down so as not to wake his roommate up. Finally, after about ten minutes, she started breathing in and out more evenly. “ _ Sorry _ ,” she said. “ _ It’s just… Something happened and I… I didn’t have anywhere else I could really go to, and… and I just need someone to talk to. _ ”

“Well, you have my undivided attention,” said Ed, readjusting on the floor to give his tailbone a rest. 

“ _ Thanks _ .”

“I don’t mean to pry, but would you mind sharing? Like, I get it if you don’t, we’ve only known each other for two weeks, but —“

“ _ I think I need to. To… to process it _ .”

“Okay.”

Winry took a shaky breath in. “ _ My… my parents… _ ” A fresh sob escaped her. “ _ They died out East. In the civil war _ .”

Ed’s heart froze. “Oh,” he breathed. “Winry, I am so, so sorry that you have to go through this. It’s… Frankly, it’s not fair that anyone should go through losing parents.” He shifted his stump, re-balancing his phone. “Listen: my mom died when I was five, so if anyone gets what you’re going through right now, it’s me.”

“ _ Oh _ .” She hiccuped. “ _ Sorry to hear that.” _

Ed waved his hand in the air. “That was fifteen years ago. Like, yeah, it still hurts and sometimes I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning because all I can think of that day is that my mom is gone and I’ll never see her again; but those are usually the days when my brother calls so I’m not wallowing in my grief and self-pity.”

“ _ It’s just that… They’re  _ gone _. Just like that, and I never got to say goodbye and who am I going to call over relationship troubles? Who am I going to text medical memes because they showed up on my feed and they’re the only ones who get it? They  _ can’t _ be gone, but they  _ are _ and there’s this hole in my chest and I miss them so, so much and they’re just.. gone. They’re gone, Ed, and I… I don’t… I want them back. I want them back so much and it doesn’t feel real because I called them just yesterday and they were fine, and… _ ” She laughed, a weak, wet sound that sent crackles through the phone line. “ _ It feels like a bad dream. Like I’ll wake up and my dad will be there to give me a hug and my mom will give me another blanket and we’ll all just hold each other and I’d never let go. Just hold onto them for forever and never let them go back East and be selfish even though they’d never want me to be, because they always told me to help other people because that was where we as humans found the most joy; but I want to be selfish, and I want them back. I know I sound like a three-year-old  _ \--”

“No,” Ed said firmly. “Never say things like that. Just because you want your parents back does not mean you sound like a three-year-old. And, y’know, you’re processing. When my mom died I buried everything so deep. I didn’t even cry at her funeral. My brother did -- he got so much snot on my suit that we had to wash it about three times that day -- but I didn’t. I had to be the older brother, I had to be the adult. Let Al cry, let him let out his emotions, but I had to be strong so he could cry on me. I was his rock, I was the third leg he used to steady himself on.” He snorted. “Sorry, that was a bad joke.”

“ _ What joke? _ ”

“Well, my mom died in a car accident. Trust me, this is relevant. Some stupid guy ran a red light and T-boned her, killing her on impact. All my brother got was a rash on the side of his neck, but my leg was crushed under the door and her seat. They had to do a field amputation to get me out.”

“ _ Oh, Ed. I… I had no idea _ .”

“Don’t worry about it. Like I said, it was fifteen years ago. But anyway, that was where the ‘third leg’ joke came from. Because I was his tripod, both literally and metaphorically.”

Winry giggled. “ _ That’s terrible. But, somehow, really funny. I… I couldn't imagine what you went through _ .”

“Well, I about killed myself during rehab, that’s for sure. But, the day I walked all on my own, without a limp, on my prosthetic leg, was one of the best days of my life.” He snorted. “And immediately after that, I got into a fistfight with my brother, Al. My physical therapist nearly strangled me when she saw us wrestling on the floor, my nose bloody from his right hook.”

“ _ What did your dad think of that? _ ”

Ed’s expression darkened. “I don’t know. Asshole walked out on us a week before the accident, and I haven’t seen him since.”

Winry broke down into sobs again. “ _ I’m… I’m so sorry, for bringing up all of these bad memories for you… and the fact that I called you at three in the morning, even though we barely know each other… I can’t imagine what you must think of me _ .” She cried into the phone, weeping and sniffling. Ed grabbed his phone, struggling to stand while holding it and maneuvering his crutches to stand up.

“Okay, Winry, I want you to listen to me,” he said once he was balancing on his right leg and adjusting the crutches around him. “I’m going to hang up, but that’s because I’m going to put my leg on and borrow my roommate’s car. So, where do you live, because you sound like you need a hug right now. And if you don’t want me showing up at your apartment at three in the morning, that’s fine, we can go and grab McDonald’s or something. Okay?”

Winry sniffled. “ _ Okay. I live over at the Warehouse. It’s across the street from the stadium _ .”

Ed opened the bathroom door with his elbow. “Okay. I should be there in fifteen minutes or so. I’ll call when I get into the parking lot.”

“ _ Okay. And, Ed? _ ”

“Yeah?”

“ _ Thank you. For… for everything _ .”

Ed turned the volume down. “Of course,” he said. “What are friends for? See you in fifteen minutes.”

Winry mumbled a response, and Ed hung up. He hobbled back into his room, grabbing his sleeve and leg. After years of wearing prosthetics he was used to the process of slipping on the sleeve, fitting his prosthetic over his stump, and putting weight on it to let the air trapped inside to escape. He grabbed his lanyard with his wallet on it, and walked over to where his roommate, Ling, was sleeping. 

“Psst. Ling. Wake up.” Ling grumbled and turned over. Ed rolled his eyes and poked him in the shoulder. “Dude.”

Ling’s eyes fluttered open. “Whaaa…?” he asked, still extremely groggy. “I’ss like two in the m’rning.”

“Can I borrow your car? It’s kind of an emergency.”

Ling groaned. “S’re,” he said into his pillow. His eyes slammed shut and he immediately started snoring. Ed rolled his eyes, grabbed Ling’s car keys off of his desk, and closed the door behind him as softly as he could. Ed limped a little bit on his way to Ling’s bright green car-- it always took a few steps for all of the air to truly get out of the socket -- and climbed in, starting it. It was a good thing he borrowed Ling’s car a lot, otherwise he would have no idea where the Warehouse was. 

He wasn’t too worried about his driving, he was more worried about Winry. He didn’t want her to be alone, especially that the news about her parents’ deaths was fresh. His knuckles gripped the steering wheel, turning white. His stump throbbed, phantom pain from when his leg was completely crushed under hundreds of pounds of steel. His mom, turning around, her chestnut hair flying around her as she looked back to see if Ed and Al were okay. A black sedan, hurtling towards her.

Ed was always thankful he had blacked out during the impact. The next thing he remembered was rain falling on his face. His ears were ringing, and strangers stood over him and shouted. 

Ed slammed on the breaks, nearly running past a stop sign. He couldn’t dwell on that day, he needed to be here, in the present. For Winry. 

He pulled into the parking lot in front of a large, square building with “ _ THE WAREHOUSE _ ” painted on it in large, brick letters. He pulled out his phone and called Winry.

“I’m in the parking lot,” he said when she answered. “What do you want?”

“ _ Probably McDonalds _ ,” she said. 

“Okay. I’m in the lime green car. Don’t judge, it’s my roommate’s.”

Winry laughed wetly. “ _ Okay. I’ll be down in a second _ .”

Ed decided to get out of the car and stand behind the opened door, resting his arms on it. Winry walked out, wearing slippers, sweatpants, a baggy sweatshirt, and her hair was completely down. He waved a little at her, and she waved back. “Thanks for coming,” she said, then completely broke down, crying. She crumpled within herself, and fell to her knees. Ed turned the car off and knelt down next to her. 

“Do you want a hug?” he asked softly. 

Winry nodded, and Ed wrapped his arms around her. She clung to his sweatshirt, her head resting on his shoulder as sobs racked through her body. The more she cried, the tighter Ed held on. Knowing from experience, with grief like this, it was important to feel grounded, that you weren’t the only one in this pain. 

She wrapped her arms around her waist and squeezed, to the point where it hurt. Ed didn’t say a thing. They shifted to a more comfortable sitting arrangement, with Ed’s legs outstretched and Winry’s curled up, almost laying on his lap. 

“It didn’t really hit me until now,” she said. “When I saw you, when I realized that the phone call was real, I just…” she sighed, her breath hitching. “They’re gone. They’re really gone. And I’m alone.”

“Listen to me,” said Ed. “I know where you are, I’ve felt what you’re feeling. There are people who love you and support you and who won’t leave you alone during this. Who won’t ever leave you alone with this. 

“But the most important thing you can do is to stand. You have two good legs, use them. Stand on them, even if they’re shaking like hell, and walk. One step at a time, one day at a time. If you need crutches or a tripod, I’m there.” Winry snorted. “I’m serious. Don’t let your grief keep you from doing the things you want to do with your life. Let it consume you, let it fill every nook and cranny of your being, and let it go.” Winry clung tighter to him, her tears and snot seeping through his sweatshirt. “It hurts, Winry. It hurts  _ so damn much _ but you can’t hold onto it for forever. Otherwise you’ll turn into a mess like me.”

Winry wiped her nose and sat up straighter. “Doesn’t sound so bad to me.”

Ed raised his eyebrows. “Seriously? I’m an amputee with daddy issues.”

She chuckled weakly. “Who doesn’t have daddy issues, these days?”

“You got me there. For a second I thought you were going to say, ‘who doesn’t have amputations,’ which would have been hilarious, but yours makes more sense.”

Winry laughed, throwing her head back so the headlights could light up her blotchy skin. “It feels good to laugh,” she said. “Like, I never truly appreciated what laughing felt like until I thought I couldn’t do it again.”

Ed stood up, straightening out his knee joint, and held his hand out to her. “Well, we can sit here in a sketchy parking lot, or we can go to McDonald’s and get some equally sketchy food. What do you say?”

Winry took his hand. “Food,” she said. “Always food. I am starving and extremely dehydrated.” Ed lifted her to her feet with ease, and walked her over to the passenger side door, opening it for her. She smiled, her eyebrows raised. 

“My foster mom didn’t raise a fool, Winry,” he said. “If I’m driving, and you’re not my brother, I will open the door for you.”

“Why not your brother?” she asked, sliding into the seat. “These are really nice seats, by the way.”

“Yeah, rich roommate. He lives on campus so he can get the unlimited meal plan, “Ed explained, sitting in the driver’s seat. “And Al can fend for himself. Do you mind navigating?”

Winry shook her head. Ed pulled up the directions to the nearest and least-sketchy McDonalds and gave his phone to her. She led him out of the parking lot, the car completely silent except when she spoke up to give him directions. Ed was completely fine with the silence. 

In the two weeks they’d known each other, Ed knew that Winry was someone he could sit in silence with for hours and not feel the need to talk. They had done that, several times. After each time, Ed’s energy recharged and he usually didn’t go to sleep until one in the morning because he was perfectly awake. There was truly something special about being in Winry’s presence, even with everything going on, and Ed wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

“Left at the stoplight,” she said, her voice a little hoarse. Ed turned his blinker on, driving smoothly into the turn lane. No one was out. It was almost four in the morning and Ed’s exhaustion kept creeping up on him, but each time he bit the side of his cheek. He definitely wasn’t going to class, but neither was Winry. After they finished doing whatever at McDonald’s, he would make sure she was sleeping everything off, leaving her in the care of her friends and roommates. 

Winry led them safely to McDonald’s. Only three other cars were in the parking lot -- those belonging to the employees, Ed assumed. They got out of the car, and Ed held the door open for her. She mumbled a soft “Thank you,” as he followed her in. 

The three employees were talking and laughing, immediately shutting up when Ed and Winry walked in. They shared a look, both of them rolling their eyes. 

“What are you thinking of getting?” Winry asked.

Ed shoved his hands into his pockets, popping his prosthetic knee in and out. “Probably an apple pie,” he said. “You?”

She shrugged. “I don’t come here often enough to really care.”

“What about we get ice cream and some fries and share it?”

Winry cocked her head to the side. “That’s kind of a weird mix.”

“No, you dip the fries in the ice cream.” He laughed at her befuddled expression. “Trust me, it’s really good. Here, I’ll get the fries, ice cream, and two apple pies.”

“How about  _ I  _ get the apple pies,” she said. “I did bring my wallet, you know.”

Ed shrugged. “I really don’t care either way. It’s your crisis McDonald’s trip, I’m just the driver.”

Winry smacked him on the arm, both of them grinning. They walked up to the register. 

“I will have a large chocolate ice cream and a large thing of fries.”

“Weirdo,” Winry muttered. Ed waved her off to the side, paying for his order. He stepped off to the side. She was looking better, he had to admit. Her face was no longer blotchy, and her red eyes looked like they were red from exhaustion, which they probably were. She tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear, paying in cash for the apple pies. “Thanks!” she said to the cashier when he gave her the little green boxes. She smiled mischievously at Ed, holding the apple pies to her face. “Smells fake,” she said, poking him in the gut.

He glared at her, a smile playing on his lips. He grabbed the cup of ice cream and fries, following Winry to the farthest corner of the room. They sat down, setting the food in the middle of the booth. Winry eyed the fries and ice cream.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I,” she said. 

“Most likely,” Ed said, pushing them towards her. He took one of the apple pie boxes and opened it, taking a bite out of the cold pie. He sighed. “They’re better when they’re warm,” he said with his mouth full.

Winry looked between him and the ice cream. “At the same time,” she said.

Ed swallowed his apple pie and took a French fry, holding it above the ice cream. “on three,” he said. “One… two… three!”

They dipped their fries into the ice cream, popping them into their mouths at the same time. Ed watched Winry chew and swallow. 

“BIt underwhelming,” she said, “but I can see the appeal.”

Ed groaned. “Come on,” he said. “It’s delicious!”

Winry rolled her eyes and opened the other apple pie box. “So,” she said. “You’ve listened to me cry about my parents for about an hour and will continue to listen to me cry about my parents because, while this is a nice distraction, it’s still a distraction.”

“As expected.”

She took a bite of the apple pie. “So what’s your story?”

Ed dipped a group of fries into the chocolate ice cream. “You pretty much heard it already,” he said. “Dad left, mom died in a car accident, I lost my leg, my brother and I went into the foster system and were eventually adopted by our foster parents. There’s not much to tell.”

“That is a big, fat lie, Edward Elric. What were your foster parents like?

Ed smiled. “Well, they ran a butcher shop, for one. One of my first chores in the house was to clean up after a fresh haul of meat came in.”

Winry choked on her food. “Seriously? How old were you?”

Ed thought for a moment. “Eight? Nine? I’ve known the Curtis’ for so long that I almost can’t remember a time when they weren’t my parents. Besides my mom, of course. I remember her.”

“What about your dad?” she asked. “If you don’t want to say, I completely understand.”

Ed looked into Winry’s eyes. Yes, he trusted her. Yes, there was something about her that just  _ clicked _ with him, but could he trust her with this? With his soul? If he started telling her everything -- which he wanted to do, but they had only really known each other for two weeks -- starting with this, he couldn't stop. Wouldn’t stop, not with her. 

Her blue eyes stared back at him, and he understood how eyes are windows to the soul. He could see into hers, and hers into his, so he took the first step in breaking down the walls he spent years building. It was a conscious effort, removing that first brick, but with Winry, he knew he’d tear down the walls in no time. Simply because she asked.

“My only memory of him is the day he walked out,” he said. “Al needed to go to the bathroom, and he never liked going alone, so I helped him out. On our way back to our room, I heard my mom talking to him, so we went downstairs to investigate. He was standing in the doorway, halfway out the door. I could barely see his face because the sun was in my eyes, but he looked at me and Al, then turned and walked out.” He stabbed the ice cream with one of the fries. “Bastard. He didn’t even show up at Mom’s funeral.”

“Listen. Ed.” Ed looked up at Winry. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me tonight. Truly, I do. But you don’t need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.” She smiled. “You have people around you who love you and care for you, no matter what.”

“Thanks, Winry. Guess we’ll buoy each other up, right?”

“Set up our own little tripod,” she said with a grin, taking a fry and dipping it into the ice cream. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/kudos gives me life and makes my day. Please. Feed your starving content creators validation, we desperately need it. Thanks for reading!!


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